Part 17 (1/2)
Ans.: The effect is detrimental to the interests of the subject cla.s.s as the different cla.s.s interests conflict. Therefore the ruling cla.s.s finds the inst.i.tutions mentioned very useful in either persuading or forcing the so-called ”lower cla.s.ses” to submit to the economic conditions that are absolutely against their interest, even though they are the wealth producing cla.s.s.
15. Distinguish natural environment from man-made environment.
Ans.: Natural environment which consisted of the fertility of the soil, climatic conditions, abundance of fruits, nuts, game and fish was all-important in the early stage of man's development. With the progress of civilization this nature-made environment loses its supreme importance and the man-made economic environment becomes equally important.
16. Explain, briefly, the law of Surplus Value.
Ans.: It is the difference between what the working cla.s.s as a whole gets for its labor power at its value in wages, say an average of five dollars per day, for producing commodities, and what the employing cla.s.s as a whole gets, say an average of twenty-five dollars, for the same commodities when sold at their value. According to this conservative estimate capital is upon the whole and in the long run robbing labor of four-fifths of the value of its productive power. Capitalism is therefore the great robber, the Beelzebub of robbers.
17. Since the economic factor is the determining factor, what does the law of Surplus Value furnish us?
Ans.: ”Surplus Value is the key to the whole present economic organization of society. The end and object of capitalist society is the formation and acc.u.mulation of surplus value; or in other words, the systematic, legal robbery of the subject working cla.s.s.”
18. Define value and state how measured.
Ans.: Value is the average amount of human labor time socially, not individually, necessary under average, not special, conditions for the production or reproduction of commodities.
19. What determines the value of labor power?
Ans.: It is determined precisely like the value of every other commodity, i. e., by the amount of labor time socially necessary for its production or reproduction by the raising and support of children to succeed their parents as wage-earning slaves.
20. Since labor power is a commodity, what condition is it subject to?
Ans.: It is subject to the same conditions that all other commodities are subject to without regard to the fact that it is the source of all social value. The worker in whom the commodity labor power is embodied, does not get the value of the product of his labor, but only about one-fifth of it, enough to keep him in working order and reproduce more labor power in his children. If the worker received the value of the product of his labor he would receive much more than enough to keep him in working order and to raise his family. Such an economic condition would abolish all forms of surplus value or profit, also the wage system, by subst.i.tuting economic and social organization in the interest of the working cla.s.s. No other cla.s.s could remain in existence and the cla.s.s struggle would be ended.
21. In what economic system, past or present, does surplus value appear?
Ans.: It is the root of all social systems since the rise of the inst.i.tution of private property, but only under the present system (capitalism) has labor power a.s.sumed the commodity form. Labor power is a commodity with a two fold character: it has a use and an exchange value. Its use value consists in its being capable of producing values over and above its own needs for sustenance and reproduction. Its exchange value consists in the amount of socially necessary labor time required for its production and reproduction.
The chattel and feudal systems of slavery were not directly concerned with the production of commodities for the profit of the masters, but rather with the producing of the necessities of life for all, masters and slaves, and the luxuries for some, the masters. That which was not produced for immediate consumption was sold, if opportunities presented themselves, and occasionally the professional traders developed, for example, the Phoenicians; but they were an exception to the rule. The same holds good for feudalism, except that during the latter stages of that system commercialism arose; but this commercialism was no feature of feudalism--it was the rising capitalism that began to unfold and a.s.sert itself.
22. Name the three great systems of economic organization upon which the structure of past history and social inst.i.tutions have their basis.
Ans.: (1) Chattel slavery, (2) serfdom, or feudal slavery and (3) wage slavery.
23. Explain, briefly, how the subject cla.s.s was exploited under each of these economic systems.
Ans.: 1. Under chattel slavery the laborer was a chattel (possession or property) the same as a mule or horse, and only received his ”keep,”
that is, enough food, clothing and shelter to keep him in working order and to reproduce labor power by raising children. All he produced (use values and children) was taken by his master. The body of the slave was the property of his master. 2. Under serfdom or feudal slavery, the worker produced what was necessary to keep him in working order and to raise a family of slaves, and then the balance of his time produced use values for his feudal lord. The body of the slave was his own, though he could not go about with it from one place to another; for it was bound to the land of his master. 3. Under the wage slavery, the worker receives wages which again equals only the amount necessary to keep him in working order and to reproduce more labor power in his children. His entire product belongs to the capitalist, and out of this resource he pays the wages for the commodity labor, also for other commodities such as raw materials, and appropriates all of the balance and converts it into capital with which he not only continues but increases the exploitation of his workers. The body of the capitalist's slave is indeed his own as under the feudal system but with this difference, that if he does not like his master, or he is disliked by him, he can or must go abroad with it from one place to another looking for a job--a liberty or necessity which is to the advantage of the owning cla.s.s and the disadvantage of the working cla.s.s. Unemployment is necessary to the existence of capitalism, but this necessity is a danger to the system and will ultimately destroy it in all countries as it has in Russia.
24. Define the ”Cla.s.s Struggle.”
Ans.: It is the direct clash between two hostile cla.s.s interests wherein the employing cla.s.s makes every effort to appropriate more of the wealth produced by the working cla.s.s, and the working cla.s.s ever struggles to retain more of the wealth which it produces. The capitalist cla.s.s strives to get more surplus value and the working cla.s.s strives to get more wages.
The cla.s.s consciousness of those who live by working has found one of its best expressions in the following paragraphs:
”The world stands upon the threshold of a new social order. The capitalist system of production and distribution is doomed; capitalist appropriation of labor's product forces the bulk of mankind into wage slavery, throws society into the convulsions of the cla.s.s struggle, and momentarily threatens to engulf humanity in chaos and disaster.
Since the advent of civilization human society has been divided into cla.s.ses. Each new form of society has come into being with a definite purpose to fulfill in the progress of the human race. Each has been born, has grown, developed, prospered, become old, outworn, and, has finally been overthrown. Each society has developed within itself the germs of its own destruction as well as the germs which went to make up the society of the future.
The capitalist system rose during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the overthrow of feudalism. Its great and all-important mission in the development of man was to improve, develop, and concentrate the means of production and distribution, thus creating a system of co-operative production. This work was completed in advanced capitalist countries about the beginning of the 20th century. That moment capitalism had fulfilled its historic mission, and from that moment the capitalist cla.s.s became a cla.s.s of parasites.